Deverall Island

From 20091120-DeverallIsland

Last week we had a beautiful day on Friday and we finally got a chance to get out of town for a while. Our destination was Deverall Island a few hundred miles south along the coast of the continent and our ride was a Twin Otter "fixed wing" aircraft. This was my first time flying in one of these, and let me tell you a ski landing on sea ice is a hair raising event. They're impressive vehicles though. We touched down with no trouble and even taxied over to within a few hundred yards of our site.

From 20091120-DeverallIsland

Out here in the middle of nowhere a steel frame with a pile of batteries, antennas, wind generators, and solar panels sticks out like a sore thumb. It's a very elegant design though, and it's satisfying to think that we can deploy these things with nothing but a ring of satellites tying them back to the mainland and be able to continuously collect data. We spent about four hours monkeying with various parts that needed maintenance of some kind.

From 20091120-DeverallIsland

On the way home we needed to make a quick stop for gas. No stations in sight, but we did find a pile of six fuel drums half buried in the snow. Fifteen minutes of shoveling and fifteen minutes of pumping later and we were gassed up and ready to go. The fuel cache site offered some splendid views of the surrounding rock & ice.

From 20091120-DeverallIsland

As we got nearer to McMurdo we started seeing some familiar sites. Here's Mt. Discovery - yet another resident volcano. Doesn't the bluish tint in the sea ice look strange?

From 20091120-DeverallIsland

Home sweet McMurdo! We got home just in time for dinner. Another fine day in Antarctica.